Netflix's 'Ink' Targets Oscars with Pearce as Young Murdoch — SkimNews
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- Netflix acquired "Ink," Danny Boyle's adaptation of James Graham's stage play about Rupert Murdoch's 1969 acquisition of The Sun, opening the 83rd Venice Film Festival in competition before a December theatrical release and January streaming date.
- Guy Pearce plays a brash, thirty-something Murdoch in a role positioned for a supporting actor Oscar bid, two years after his first nomination for "The Brutalist."
- Jack O'Connell plays editor Larry Lamb, arriving with awards momentum from "Sinners" and the "28 Years Later" films, giving him visibility in a crowded best actor field.
- James Graham adapts his own Tony-nominated play, placing "Ink" in the adapted screenplay conversation and following the Venice-festival-to-nomination path that "One Night in Miami" walked in 2020.
- The film's crafts roster includes Johnnie Burn, the Oscar-winning sound designer of "The Zone of Interest," plus production designers Carson McColl and Gareth Pugh, editor Fin Oates, and composer Daniel Pemberton.
- Netflix's stacked fall slate features competing titles — "La Bola Negra," "The Adventures of Cliff Booth," "Possible Love," "Gentle Monster" and "The Mosquito Bowl" — all angling for the same awards oxygen as "Ink."
Why it matters: Netflix must split finite campaign resources — screeners, events, voter attention — across at least six fall titles, meaning "Ink" competes with its own slate, not just rival studios. The film's timeliness, casting Pearce opposite the live cultural debate over Murdoch's influence, gives the campaign a resonance Netflix won't have to manufacture.
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